At Wild Hill Flowers and Events, we love getting to know our sweet brides and their one-of-a-kind love stories!! You may remember the love story contest we held last February to win FREE WEDDING CEREMONY FLOWERS! The contest was a hit (click here to see the winner from last year)! So of course we had to do it again this year!

We received an overwhelming number of entries the last few weeks and loved reading them all! To select the top 7, the entries were read by a panel of judges who are unrelated to the contestants, all at independent locations to secretly submit their votes. It was such a tough decision, our panel couldn't just choose five! So, here are our top seven love stories! We just need your help choosing the winner of a FREE wedding ceremony from Wild Hill!

We are in the last few days of voting and anyone can vote for their favorite love story! You can click below to vote for your favorite couple! Voting is open now through February 13th at midnight! The winner will be announced on Valentine's Day! (Giveaway includes bridal bouquet, bridesmaid bouquets, corsages, boutonnieres, and a romantic altar piece (arbor decor or pedestal arrangements, or other altar piece of your choice. Reception pieces can be added for additional cost.)

And now for our top 7….

Carolina & Kevin

What makes our love story unique is that we share a service to our country. Kevin is an active duty MP officer currently stationed at Fort Leavenworth, KS. He’s been in the US Army for over a decade. I myself have 5 years of service for the Army behind me when I was a Medical Laboratory Specialist serving all my time at Fort Bragg, NC. That is where we met!

Around the time I was exiting the military after completing my 5 year contract I had thrown a bbq bash at my house and my friend/coworker Jennifer asked if it was alright if she and her husband bring a friend along. I said the more the merrier! It was not an intentional set-up but the moment we met there was an instant spark!

Some weeks of texting and seeing each other led to Kevin officially asking me to be his girlfriend during the sunset while on an intimate beach trip to Pine Knoll Shores on NC’s Crystal Coast area. I said yes! How romantic! A few months after that Kevin received orders to Fort Leavenworth. Although we hadn’t been together long, when Kevin asked if I would accompany him to move to the middle of the country and leave everything and everyone familiar behind I said yes again! I felt like it was right. When you know, you know…. READ MORE

Brooke & Tristan

When we were 17 and 18 years old, Tristan and I met in a way I would have never predicted: taking the ACT. Tristan was seated right behind me in the test room, and after sharing only a few short sentences, he boldly asked for my phone number. I would come to learn that this boldness is one of Tristan’s hallmark characteristics. I normally would not recommend giving out your phone number to a total stranger, but the outcome here was favorable to say the least. About a week later, we went on our first date: ice skating at Crown Center.

Our five years of dating, were filled with several rotating seasons of living in the same city, then living in different cities. Within the first few months of being together, we knew that college would be an obstacle we had to overcome. Tristan decided to complete his first two years at a junior college, and I decided to go to K-State. I will never forget how painful it was to hug him goodbye in the parking lot of my dorm on move-in day. After that first year, Tristan surrendered his hope of becoming a Jayhawk, and moved to Manhattan instead. We soaked up two years of college together and found ourselves surrounded by the most wonderful and supportive friends imaginable. After Tristan graduated, I stayed in Manhattan to finish my last semester. I just moved back home from completing my degree, and now big obstacle to us staying together is behind us, quickly becoming just a blip on the timeline. The challenges we experienced could have driven us apart, but we only became more unified as a team…. READ MORE

Kelsey & Danny

As I started writing out our love story, I asked my fiancé Danny for some input. He started writing it from his perspective and I thought it was even more special:

Our story, at first glance, may be seemingly ordinary, but that could not be further from the truth. The odds of us finding each other in the right place at the right time were astronomical--separated by a few years in time and a mountain of different life experiences, somehow our paths crossed.

Kelsey had been working a Kansas City area hospital for a number of years in multiple capacities. She began her career as a registered nurse in 2015 at the age of 20 on a cardiac and neuro unit. I had been in the marines for five years and decided to begin my schooling for nursing, with the goal of becoming an emergency room nurse. In the summer of 2016, I began working in the same Kansas City area hospital, on the same floor as Kelsey, but I worked the night shift. I remember seeing this beautiful, dark-haired nurse in passing, but I never seemed to get the opportunity to speak to her. Months went by but we still had no direct contact with each other. We worked long, and sometimes arduous, 12-hour shifts. Our schedules somehow lined up where we had the same patients for three days in a row. She possessed this unassuming, quiet confidence that was intimidating. It was easy to see that she was a tremendous health care provider. After only one conversation, her opinion already meant the world to me. I felt a connection--a spark--immediately. Little did I know, she felt the same. We spent the next few months talking more in passing. Each time I felt I was getting spoiled for even sharing a conversation with this amazing person…. READ MORE

Amy & Aaron

Aaron was on a safari in South Africa a few years ago and his tour guide on this particular safari was none other than his soon-to-be wife, Amy. After a few hours of spotting rhinos, zebras, springboks, and a herd of elephants Aaron said, "Amy, have you ever been to America?" Hesitantly she replied - No, why do you ask? A smile came across his face and he said, "You're going to soon, because we're heading to Kansas City!"

Just kidding, here's the real story... Aaron and I met out on the town one night. From the way the story goes, neither of us were too keen on venturing outside of our houses on this specific Saturday night, but our respective groups of friends wouldn't take 'no' for an answer. They are the true heroes of this story. A couple hours passed and neither of us had any idea the other was there, or the series of events that were about to take place. After wandering off for a few minutes, Aaron ordered two gin & tonics from the barkeep and spotted his two friends across the patio. He walked up and asked, "Who wants a gin and tonic?" Within seconds, I replied with a convincing smile and a shout of approval. The rest of the night the two of us were inseparable. He asked where I was from and I told him South Africa and that we rode elephants to school, which he believed. So now we have a caricature drawing of the two of us riding an elephant in cowboy getup J . We ended the night chatting about life, friends, work, school, football (just kidding, they play rugby in South Africa). My friend was kind enough to give Aaron and his two friends a ride home and while I was sitting in the front seat, Aaron decided to make sure the number I gave him was correct. So he texted me right then and there, and when my phone lit up I looked in the mirror and saw him giving his now all too familiar mischievous smile… READ MORE

Caroline & Jaskaran

Sometimes, you can look back at your life and pinpoint a moment that changed its course forever.

For us, that moment happened on a chilly March morning in a tedious organic chemistry lab at UCLA. We’d spent an entire eight weeks in the same lab together, but it wasn’t until we were randomly paired as lab partners that we interacted. Our first conversation started ordinary enough: Names. Hometowns. Major. Spring break plans. A few days later we were sneaking to the roof of the Math-Sciences Building after class, to trade music that got us through rough patches and ask each other in depth questions about what we hoped to find out of life.

After that first day our talking never ceased. During finals week Jaskaran asked me if I could use a break from the studying and I didn’t think twice. We drove up the Pacific Coast Highway on that first date, up into the Santa Monica mountains to a hiking trail overlooking the ocean. As we climbed, we spoke of our childhoods and our families: the good, the bad, the ugly, the hilarious. I reveled at how absolutely different they were. I grew up in a rural Kansas town of a couple thousand people, horseback riding and raising sheep. Jaskaran grew up in a busy city of northern India playing tennis and soccer, becoming fluent in three languages by the time he was 9. We both loved science and medicine, which brought us to UCLA with the common goal of premedical training. Through the laughter and seriousness, it struck me that there was so much to learn from each other. When he dropped me off that night I couldn’t place the indescribable feeling I had. I could not stop my smiling. We paused outside the car, talking and delaying the inevitable. We eventually leaned in to say goodbye, and I moved to kiss him – finally able to do one thing I’d been thinking about for hours…. READ MORE

Kirstyn & Federico

When only one, turned into one more. Rewind to the winter of 2016 in the cold, windy state of Nebraska. I was a senior at Creighton University and had just finished my last season of playing soccer, and I had big plans in mind after graduation. The first plan was to get out of Nebraska and move back home to Kansas City! At this time, with one semester left of undergraduate school, I was so happy and confident in myself, and my future, that I was not looking for any type of relationship at all. One of my best friends mentioned in conversation one day that this guy who played baseball at our school, Federico Castagnini, would be the perfect man for me – he had just come back to Creighton to finish up his degree after playing baseball for the Baltimore Orioles for 2 years.

On the last weekend of January, I decided to go out with some friends, which was very rare in of itself, and I ended up seeing him at the same place. I went up to introduce myself and truly, the rest is history. Federico grew up in Italy and came to America when he was 17 to play baseball; his family still lives in Italy. A lot of coincidences were at play including that we were both #7 for our Creighton sports teams, and that my parents both became fluent in Italian recently because they had traveled there and fell in love with the country and Italian culture. Fede and my dad love to speak Italian to each other – while I am still trying to learn! After that night when we first met, we could not stop talking to each other about life, our families, our futures, our hopes and dreams, and everything in between. Fast forward the next week or two, we met each other again, and at the end of the night, Fede told me he was going to kiss me, and I responded, “only one”, which of course, was followed again and again by “one more.”… READ MORE

Katie & Lucas

Lucas and I met when we were 12 years old at Westridge Middle School. We became friends in our 8th grade social studies class, and we became nearly inseparable. But, we were strictly only best friends. I told my cousin in middle school that I was going to marry Lucas one day, but I didn't want to date him yet (middle school thought process, makes sense right?). During high school, we hung out almost every day after school. Lucas was the first person I would tell about any boy I liked or had a crush on, and little did I know that he had liked me since we were 13 but he was too scared to tell me (I'm the worst - right?).

Our junior year of high school, we both decided that we wanted to go to the University of Arkansas. I wanted to go there for their nursing program, and Lucas was drawn to the area by the beauty and camping/hiking/outdoors. Right before our senior year, we went to Young Life Camp with our high school. I was having a one-on-one with my Young Life leader when she mentioned, "So...what about Lucas?". And I said, "What about Lucas?!". And she and I talked about how she thought we would make a great couple and that I should pray about my relationships and to let the Lord take care of the rest. It was then that I started thinking about Lucas in a different way, and prayed about our relationship. About a month after Young Life Camp, I texted Lucas a BOLD text. I asked, "Do you or have you ever liked me?", he replied a simple, "yes..". That night I found out that Lucas did not only currently have feelings for me, but that he had liked me for years. I told him that I liked him too, and we started dating a few months later, on November 8th, 2013. We went to all of our senior year dances together, got even closer than we already were, and headed off to college as boyfriend and girlfriend. Our college years were amazing, sharing the same friend group and growing much deeper in our relationship and in our faith… READ MORE

Thanks for taking the time to read these amazing love stories! Did you vote for your favorite? Be sure to check back on Valentine’s Day to see which couple wins a FREE wedding ceremony from Wild Hill Flowers and Events! We can’t wait to see who it is!